xkcd

The Food Forum's Evil Twin. Trying to lose weight or get in shape? Tips, encouragement, status reports, and so forth go here.Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, we are not health professionals. Take advice with salt.

My life has turned and zig zagged but the thread was there, funny how something like this can be, I don't know, like a stronghold, a point of reference...

I remember a cheap running shoes, white, with thin sole, a no sleeve tshirt, me smoking some stinky tunisian cigarettes, but going to run to a park in Tunis, in the days of what was known as "Arab spring"I remember getting a running watch, taking it seriously, my mile time dropped to 5:06, that was next year in Granada, run with my housemate sometimes, up to the Alhambra palace.And then some little runs here in Fes, Morocco, starting to discover my surroundings.I finished my translation degree, started an artificial inteligence master, discovered MOOCS, kept with my girlfriend, lived in 5 different houses, in 5 cities in 3 different countries in 2 continents . I'm cycling this days, but I have to get that mile under 5 minutes milestone.

In that time, I fell completely out of shape for a while (move + life instability), got back into great shape for a while (last winter, when my life seemed to be settling down and I was hoping to get ready to try a half-marathon in the spring, and was running 10+ miles regularly, after having never run >5 in my life prior), fell completely out of shape for a while again (move + life instablity), and started again on the upswing.

Also, man, just reading back through this thread... it may be cheesy, but it's quite inspirational.

Just in the last page:- Sytri's first half marathon- maninblack's successful couch to 5k completion- guarwraith's reflections on running across the world and across many different life phases- Themis' (yes, I've been gone that long) graduation / bar exam.

Samik wrote:Also, man, just reading back through this thread... it may be cheesy, but it's quite inspirational.

Just in the last page:- Sytri's first half marathon- maninblack's successful couch to 5k completion- guarwraith's reflections on running across the world and across many different life phases- Themis' (yes, I've been gone that long) graduation / bar exam.

After that last run + shoe debacle, work ramped up (restaurant industry = no life for the last couple weeks of the year), then family visitations in early January, equal not much action to back up my talk. (Though tons and tons of skiing. Exhausting amounts of skiing. Just, completely, utterly, humbling-realization-of-how-out-of-shape-you-are volumes of skiing...)

BUT.

I've finally decided to make the jump to Five Fingers full time. (Been hiking in them regularly for years, but never got around to making the switch for running. Funny: hiking 17 miles of nasty terrain barefoot seems like a relatively managable task compared to running more than a couple barefoot/nearly-so on asphalt.)

Gonna take it super, super easy for a little bit, obviously. Half-miles-in-the-morning-'til-it-gets-comfortable sort of profile.

#3 in five fingers. So far so good. Could defininitely feel it in my shins/calves after the first two runs, even as short as they were. I'm sure I'll feel this one later too, but the run itself already felt much smoother. Settled into a very easy, natural feeling stride right away... Going to contine adding on a tenth of a mile or two each run for a little bit, just for safety's sake, but the early returns are making me optimistic that this could be something that works out well...

Interestingly, my most biomechanically efficient strides are quite different in five fingers than normal running shoes. My old nice-boring-going-out-for-a-moderate-jog stride seems to fall halfway in between my slow-trot and moderate-jog strides in the five fingers. I'm constantly having to resist the temptation to speed up more than I want to just yet.

I'll say. In some phases of my life, that would have been many months worth of running.

10677.7 + 1.6 = 10679.3

I am pleased to report that 16 degrees F (-9 C) and snowy, icy sidewalks were no barrier to a nice, comfortable run. The grip was perfectly fine, and, though my toes got a little chilly, it never reached a level I would call even mildly uncomfortable.

I'd been putting off, trying to squeeze my runs in on the slightly nicer days, assuming they wouldn't handle the cold very well, but there hasn't been a decent day in a while and isn't projected to be one for another while, and I was getting antsy, so out I went. And learned that I no longer have that excuse anymore.

08FEB: + 1.8 --- (Run #7. So far so good. At this rate it'll only be a few more weeks before my weekly mileage exceeds five.... Better safe than sorry though. It's where I'm at 12 months from now, not 12 days...)11FEB: + 2.0 --- (Opened it up a bit for the first time today, over the last half mile. Felt great in progress. Hopefully will still feel great in the morning.)16FEB: + 2.2

Ugh. once again I let work get in the way a little bit. That, plus more continuing discomfort in my shins with the five fingers than I was hoping for have cause a re-evaluation (I've had a couple of stress fractures in the past, so I'm maybe playing it safer than strictly necessary). So I've started running a half mile every morning. Not for cardio fitness - just to hopefully get the feet/lower legs to start making the adaptations they need to make for this style of running. I plan to do that for seven days, then add a half mile in the evening, do that for seven days, then stretch both runs out to a mile. Once I've done 14 one-mile runs in a seven day period, I'll re-evaluate how the feet/shins feel, and hopefully start doing real running again.

Sytri wrote: Last big training run before my half marathon in two weeks.

Sytri wrote: Last big training run before my half marathon in two weeks.

Has that happened yet? How did it go?

It went badly, I was on for a 2 hour 20 min finish until at mile 9 I kept getting cramp in my calves (one leg then the other) so had to walk the last 4 miles, 3 hour finish It's why I havent added it yet. I'll just add the 9 that I actually ran.

Ugh, sorry man. I would say something like '9 miles is farther than most people have ever run' or 'at least you're out there getting at it', but that's probably not what you want to hear. Especially when you've already had one successful one under your belt.Well, a step backward's no biggie if you follow it up with two steps forward, right?

In a few more weeks, once I'm more or less comfortable that there shouldn't be any looming setbacks, I'll do a thread with a writeup of the whole experience of transitioning (from regular running shoes to super minimalist), in case anyone is thinking of taking the plunge and would be interested.